TORONTO, May 9, 2017 /CNW/ - The sale of a further 20 per cent of shares in the once proudly public Hydro One is piracy, not policy, the President of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union said today.

"The sale of Hydro One was always intended to transfer a treasured public asset to private investors for the sole purpose of enriching those investors," Warren (Smokey) Thomas said. "At the urging of pirate captain Ed Clark, her adviser/boss, Premier Kathleen Wynne betrayed the people of Ontario.

"The latest announcement – that after May 17 Ontarians will no longer own a majority of shares in Hydro One – is the sign of a government that does not expect to hold on to power and is looting the public treasury while it still can."

The loss of ownership and control over Hydro One will cost Ontarians financially in two ways, Thomas said – first, because the public treasury will lose the revenues Hydro One earned, and second, because electricity prices will keep rising in a privatized environment.

"The history of electricity in Ontario is that it was expensive when it was private but became cheap when we created the public system," Thomas said. "When the previous Conservative government began privatizing the system, prices started to rise, and now, under the Liberals, the sky is the limit.

"Some people may think the Liberals are progressive, and I'm sure they will keep parroting that line, but the privatization of Hydro One is the most regressive policy we've seen in Ontario in a long time," he said. "At least in the old days when you got robbed by a pirate, they didn't try to tell you they were doing you a favour."

Thomas said Ontario voters will not forget the Wynne government's betrayal of the public trust at election time.

"The Ontario Liberal Party is a sinking ship, with or without Kathleen Wynne at the helm," he said.